The Public Service Commission (PSC) will begin verifying academic certificates digitally before hiring new employees, in an effort to curb the growing use of fake credentials in Kenya’s public sector.
PSC Commissioner Francis Meja said the commission is integrating its system with the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) to replace the current manual verification process.
“We are running a pilot for the 1,095 cases. Once that succeeds, we move to the universities where we will request data for any year of graduation. The repository will be commissioned for University education, and once we create the database and link it, we will deal with this problem once and for all,” said Meja in an interview with NTV.
The PSC Commissioner said the integration will reduce the time and manpower spent sending physical documents to KNEC for manual verification.
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“We want to interface our systems so that there is no manual intervention in the verification of certificates. The database is there, KNEC has given us access to it so that we can just pick information as it is,” he said.
Meja noted that in the past, some individuals were hired and began working in the public service before their academic documents were verified, a loophole the new system seeks to close.
A PSC audit conducted in February 2024 across three hundred and thirty-one (331) government institutions found that more than 2,000 Kenyans had used fake academic or professional certificates to secure jobs in ministries and parastatals.
A separate report by the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) indicated that nearly 30 per cent of civil servants may have obtained their positions using forged documents.
Meja attributed the problem to an overreliance on academic qualifications for employment, saying many individuals forge certificates to meet minimum job requirements.
“If you look at artisans, they have gained a lot of experience. The Qualification Authority now certifies that they actually are capable, and they can perform that work,” he points out.
He urged individuals to retake exams to improve their grades instead of resorting to forgery.
Meanwhile, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is also helping to track down public servants who were hired using fake credentials.
“We have recovered money paid to those who served under forged certificates. Some individuals earned up to Sh100 million after using fake papers to secure senior positions,” said EACC Chairperson David Oginde at a past event.
“We recover all the money, and they are, of course, dismissed from service.”
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The Public Service Commission (PSC) will begin verifying academic certificates digitally before hiring new employees, in an effort to curb the growing use of fake credentials in Kenya’s public sector.
PSC Commissioner Francis Meja said the commission is integrating its system with the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) to replace the current manual verification process.
“We are running a pilot for the 1,095 cases. Once that succeeds, we move to the universities where we will request data for any year of graduation. The repository will be commissioned for University education, and once we create the database and link it, we will deal with this problem once and for all,” said Meja in an interview with NTV.
The PSC Commissioner said the integration will reduce the time and manpower spent sending physical documents to KNEC for manual verification.
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“We want to interface our systems so that there is no manual intervention in the verification of certificates. The database is there, KNEC has given us access to it so that we can just pick information as it is,” he said.
Meja noted that in the past, some individuals were hired and began working in the public service before their academic documents were verified, a loophole the new system seeks to close.
A PSC audit conducted in February 2024 across three hundred and thirty-one (331) government institutions found that more than 2,000 Kenyans had used fake academic or professional certificates to secure jobs in ministries and parastatals.
A separate report by the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) indicated that nearly 30 per cent of civil servants may have obtained their positions using forged documents.
Meja attributed the problem to an overreliance on academic qualifications for employment, saying many individuals forge certificates to meet minimum job requirements.
“If you look at artisans, they have gained a lot of experience. The Qualification Authority now certifies that they actually are capable, and they can perform that work,” he points out.
He urged individuals to retake exams to improve their grades instead of resorting to forgery.
Meanwhile, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is also helping to track down public servants who were hired using fake credentials.
“We have recovered money paid to those who served under forged certificates. Some individuals earned up to Sh100 million after using fake papers to secure senior positions,” said EACC Chairperson David Oginde at a past event.
“We recover all the money, and they are, of course, dismissed from service.”
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By Sharon Wanga